Presumably you have not heard of Jean Ziegler. But among the NGOs and at the United Nations his is a big name and his persona something with which to grapple. As are many in this overbloated universe of self-appointed and mutually reinforcing do-gooders, this man Ziegler is a rank phony. If scepticism had not long ago become a discredited trait, his title would long ago have give him away: Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food of the United Nations Human Rights Council. He was once director of the Social Laboratory of Third World Civilizations. Bullshitter or not?
There are thousands and thousands of such Manichean philosophers-of-the-good (and of corresponding evil, western, of course) that you may ask why do I call attention to such a long essay about him. Well, first of all, it is the fact that Ziegler is a model of his type. Second of all, Hillel Neuer, director of UN Watch, has written a careful but devastating profile of this paradigmatic man. You don't really read much about these cipher human beings who wield such power as the UN has to wield, enough, far too much.